Presentations from past meetings

Anaheim, California, 22 June 2012. This Americas Regional Council (ARC) Member Meeting and OCLC Symposium drew more than 200 individuals (plus more than 350 online). Participants learned about the ARC’s initiatives over the past year, presented by William Maes, Americas Regional Council Executive Committee Chair (Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia), followed by Barbara Preece’s presentation of the ARC’s Action Plan for FY2013. Barbara is ARC Vice Chair/Chair-Elect (California State University, San Marcos), and begins her one-year term as ARC Chair 1 July 2012. Jerry Stephens, OCLC Global Council Delegate (University of Alabama at Birmingham, Mervyn H. Sterne Library) sparked a discussion with participants on OCLC Credits and Incentives. He gave a brief history and an update on the Global Council Committee’s work to date on providing the future direction and recommendations for this program.

The meeting featured OCLC Symposium speaker Phil Simon, technology consultant and author of The Age of the Platform, who discussed how today’s platforms help organizations embrace partnerships and empower innovation. To close the event, Jay Jordan, OCLC President and CEO, gave an update on the cooperative’s latest initiatives and partnerships.

This Americas Regional Council Member Meeting and OCLC Symposium drew more than 200 individuals (plus more than 100 online), who learned about OCLC's strategy, which was presented by William Maes, Americas Regional Council Executive Committee Chair (Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia). The meeting featured OCLC Symposium speaker Sarah Lacy, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of PandoDaily, and author of Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky. Sarah discussed “Mining the Fault Lines: Big Collaboration on a Richter Web Scale,” and shared the stories of several entrepreneurs from around the world, who have overcome incredible circumstances to create new opportunities in their communities. Cathy De Rosa, OCLC Vice President for the Americas and Global Vice President of Marketing also gave an overview of OCLC's latest membership survey on communications. Rick Schwieterman, OCLC Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer closed the event with a brief summary of the recommendations, actions and outcomes from OCLC Global Council’s Cost Sharing Models Task Force.

The OCLC Americas Regional Council (ARC) met in New Orleans on June 24 at the start of the 2011 ALA Annual Meeting. More than 150 librarians attended in person, and even more participated virtually, to hear updates from the cooperative’s member leadership. The meeting was followed by the OCLC Symposium on The Infinite Collection: Resources in the Digital Age.

Bill Maes, Dalhousie University, and Joseph Hafner, McGill University, led the Americas Regional Council meeting at the Canadian Library Association (CLA) Conference 2011. The OCLC Symposium on Transformational Literacy: life stages and libraries, museums and archives followed the ARC meeting and featured DeNel Rehberg Sedo, Mount Saint Vincent University, Tom Hickerson, University of Calgary, and David Pantalony, Curator of Physical Sciences and Medicine, Canada Science and Technology Museum.

Every day, libraries help people transform their lives. But nowhere is that role more apparent—and important—as when people move from one life stage to another. Whether the transition is from high school to college, student to worker, adult to parent or any other important life change, the need for information and preparation during these “between” states is more acute than at any other time in our users’ lives. A presentation by Dr. Mimi Ito was followed by a panel discussion on principles that all libraries can use to create an environment that encourages and facilitates lifelong learning.

The OCLC Americas Regional Council (ARC) met in San Diego on January 7 at the start of the 2011 ALA Midwinter Meeting. More than 100 librarians attended in person, and a similar number attended virtually, to hear a variety of presentations from librarians and OCLC senior leadership. You are encouraged to view or listen to these ARC meeting presentations at your convenience.

The Americas Regional Council (ARC) held its inaugural annual meeting on June 24-25, 2010, in conjunction with ALA Annual in Washington, D.C. This meeting was also streamed live on the Web. Members throughout the Americas Region came together to discuss Member Engagement in the Cooperative and shared ideas and thoughts on the future directions and values of the cooperative. View the sessions, which include discussion and questions from both live and virtual participants of this meeting. The meeting agenda is available in pdf format.